Zoom has once again revised its terms of service (TOS) to remove any mention of the use of content collected from its communications app to train AI models after facing a storm of criticism from users and privacy advocates.

The company published an updated blog post on Friday saying that Zoom has updated its terms of service to clarify that Zoom does not use user audio, video, chat, screen shares, attachments, or other communications such as customer content (such as poll results, whiteboards, and responses) to train Zoom or third-party AI models.

The move further backtracked on changes made earlier in the week when Zoom disclosed that it would seek customer consent before using their data to train AI models. Previously, Zoom's TOS was reportedly amended in March 2023, saying it had a 'perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable, and transferable license' to use data as it wished, including train AI models. This sparked a wave of backlash on social media, with some arguing that the TOS could contravene the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) because of how it obtained user consent.

Why does it matter?

Zoom recently launched two generative AI features, Zoom IQ Meeting Summary and Zoom IQ Team Chat Compose, which allow for the automated creation of meeting summaries and the AI-powered composition of chats. It is believed that the backlash and the revision of the TOS will likely serve as a warning to other tech companies seeking opportunities to generate profitable AI tools.